German opera singer held over fishy disappearance

The wife hired a make-up artist to disguise a man accompanying her, bringing with her a photo of her husband as an aid, police said.

BERLIN, March 12, 2010 (AFP) - A German opera singer was in custody on Friday on suspicion of killing her husband and of getting someone to impersonate him in order to get her hands on his money, police said.

Pensioner Hermann Hilss, 71, a keen fisherman, was reported missing by an acquaintance in October, but in December a lawyer got in touch with police saying that he was in her office, together with his wife, alive and kicking.

Investigators refused to take their word for it, and arranged a meeting with the couple a few days later, but the husband then "went on a trip at short notice, according to his wife," police in Offenburg in southern Germany said.

The plot then thickened and police set up a 10-strong team following up hundreds of leads including an appointment with a notary in which Hilss signed over power of attorney to his wife, named in newspapers as Waltraud G., 55.

It turned out that shortly before this meeting, the wife had got a make-up artist to disguise a man accompanying her, bringing with her a photo of her husband as an aid, police said.

"Whilst looking for this unidentified person police came across several man who had been asked by the wife to pretend to be Hermann Hilss at the notary's office. All refused," police said.

"But on Wednesday came success. A man ... admitted to having been Hermann Hilss's double, and not just at the notary's but at the lawyer's office."

The woman, who has so far exercised her right to remain silent, was arrested the following day. Police have failed to find a body, however, and a search last week of bramble bushes and reeds near his home was fruitless.